Jones Store Washington St. – At The Curve

Danny with sister Elaine Ricketts Gibson and our grandpa Dan Jones before he died in December 1946. (much more with old photographs)

Grandpa Jones bought his house on the corner of Washington and Aspen Streets in 1908. Annie Marie Jones (1903-1978), who married Reuben E. Ricketts (1901-1957) was five years old when they moved there. Carl Daniel, Florence, Katie and Austin were born there. Carl Jones was working at Townes Funeral Home in 1936. It seems that he began running the store at 1633 across the street in 1937.

This is Carl Jones behind the meat cooler and beside the scales in 1941, the year I was born. The old wooden building was replaced by a cinder block store which is there now.

This is Annie Brooks Pruett Jones (1880-1969), Carl’s mother and my Grandmother. She operated the store during World War II while Carl was away in the Army.

Carl’s free delivery bicycle, Dan Jones, Florence “Tiny” Reynolds. In the 1940s, she was the buyer for L. Herman’s, a large department store in Danville. We would take her to the train station and she traveled alone to New York City to buy the latest ladies fashions.

The is the dashing Alvin Hutcherson in 1928. Alvin’s parents operated the “Spot Cash Grocery Stores.” One was located at the corner of Piney Forest Road and Franklin Turnpike (now Wendy’s). They lived in the back of the large store. Mrs. Hutcherson operated the store opposite Third Avenue on North Main Street. Florence, who we always called Tiny, was only 15 years old when they married in 1929. They moved to Richmond where his brother operated the Sanitary Grocery. According to Tiny, the store lated became Safeway. The Sanitary Grocery building at 3031 Norfolk Street was built in 1935. It seems that Alvin might have been too dashing. He and Tiny split up and she married Clarence “Rig” Reynolds on the 8th of June 1942.

Tiny went on a trip to Lovers’ Leap in the Blue Ridge Mountains in 1929, the year she married Alvin. Tiny took the picture of her new husband and inlaws.

This is the “Mammoth” Hutcherson’s store in 1885. Huchereson bought it in 1920. My older sister, Idella Ricketts Lynch remembers going into the store to buy penny candy. A picture show machine with flip cards also coast one penny. Before this store was built, my great grandfather Reuben B. Ricketts operated “Ricketts Old Stand” same location. He bought 10 acres here in 1876, but only kept it one year.

This is Carl, the grocery man, in his younger days. At left is the old well. Many neighbors shared the Jones well before the city extended the water lines after 1931.

This is the same well which was between our grandparents house and our house at 1628 Washington Street which was built in 1927. That’s Carl’s sister and my mother, Annie Marie Jones Ricketts (1903-1974) in the dramatic pose at left. The boys at right front are Mason Haraway (b 1915) and Marvin Haraway (b 1918). That’s Florine Haraway Evans next to Marie and Mary Barker Matkins is next. At right might be Hester Stephens Smith. This photograph was taken in the 1920s. In 1920, Samuel M. Haraway (age 49) and wife Libby H. (age 42) with children Alfred W. (19), Verna M (16), Junnia F. (14), Florine (11), Mason Otis (4), and Marvin D. (2) were living on the opposite corner from the Jones family (corner Aspen and Dean St., but I think Dean St. was cut through later).

This is a little later in our front yard and in back is the house where the Yeatts girls Midred, Liz and Jennie lived. A lot of guys seemed to come around this house. This is my new state-of-the art Schwinn chromed-fendered bicycle. For a long time I parked it in the living room to keep the fenders from rusting. A small generator against the front tire operated the headlight. That’s Marie and Reuben, my parents. He died in July 1957 at age 55, so I made it a point not to drink or smoke. Although I had them, like my uncle Carl, I rarely wore shoes.